Transgender Conference is Killing our Culture?

I am sickened by the casual way in which the right wing media spew forth hatred of homosexuals. Here is the latest call to action from GLAAD referring to a disturbing exchange on The O'Reilly Factor:

Laura Ingraham claims that Transgender Conference is "Killing Our Culture" on FOX News' The O'Reilly Factor

While guest hosting Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor on Feb. 8, commentator Laura Ingraham debated Medea Benjamin, a spokeswoman for Code Pink who is opposed to military recruitment stations in Berkeley, Calif. Ingraham and Benjamin had the following exchange:

INGRAHAM: Are you -- do you think that people have a right then to stop the, let's say, transgender conference that's happening next month at Berkeley? What if the push was to stop the transgender conference? Would you support that?

BENJAMIN: I don't think that has anything to do with it, Laura..

INGRAHAM: Has nothing to do with the culture or a divisive issue?

BENJAMIN: It's war that the American people are against.

INGRAHAM: Well, wait. You think -- oh, no, let me get this straight. You think the majority of Americans would support a transgender conference in their communities? Are you kidding me?

BENJAMIN: A transgender conference. . . ..

INGRAHAM: Oh, come on.

BENJAMIN: . . . .is not killing people. It's people discussing. We're talking about a war.

INGRAHAM: And killing the culture, maybe.. That's all.

Ingraham's claim that a transgender conference is "killing the culture" reflects the kind of over the top, uninformed statements that are unfortunately still commonplace in various News Corporation media outlets. Such ill-informed rhetoric does nothing to advance any discussion of issues, whether transgender specific or not.

TAKE ACTION: GLAAD encourages you to contact Laura Ingraham and The O'Reilly Factor and ask them to stop making ignorant, mean-spirited attacks on transgender people. CONTACT: [e-mail]

What does the transgender conference have to do with the war? Obviously the host had no idea what to say next, so instead of thinking of a good comeback, she just decided to throw some homophobia into the mix. When the right wing dummies are backed into a corner, all they can think to do is throw anti-gay grenades or bring up Jesus, which is why everyone should hate them. And how does the transgender community endanger culture? How do they kill the culture? What are they doing to kill the culture? How is culture killed? What the fuck does any of that mean?

Comments

[belladawna]

some people should get a collective bitch-slap every time they start their anti-gay bigoted racist remarks eh? what people will do for "ratings" lmao kind of reminds me of this dvd i just watched called "network". it's about the spinning news people do to "sell magazine, newspapers and tv shows"... hahaha
quote is:"I'm as mad as Hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" GO HILLARY WIN IN TX AN OHIO
:-p

[Sean68]

Why can't Berkeley allow both Marine recruiters and a trans-gender conference? Birthplace of the free speech movement, eh?

[frozenporklander]

Every May for 18 years now, the town of Port Angeles, Washington has been the scene of the Esprit Transgender Conference. If the loggers there don't have a problem with more than 150 of us showing up and spending a week in their fine community, then I'm certain that the citizens of Berkeley, California wouldn't object to a transgender conference either. The local Port Angeles merchants, restaurateurs, and bar owners certainly appreciate our business. Except a few redneck teenagers, about the only other Port Angelenos who oppose our conference are the women who get "read" as TG when we are in town.

[PatA]

I wrote to crazy Bill.

[frozenporklander]

Every May for 18 years now, the town of Port Angeles, Washington has been the scene of the Esprit Transgender Conference. If the loggers there don't have a problem with more than 150 of us showing up and spending a week in their fine community, then I'm certain that the citizens of Berkeley, California wouldn't object to a transgender conference either. The local Port Angeles merchants, restaurateurs, and bar owners certainly appreciate our business. Except a few redneck teenagers, about the only other Port Angelenos who oppose our conference are the women who get "read" as TG when we are in town.

http://www.espritconf.com

[catuskoti]

Well, actually, Ingraham is kinda right. Her christiano-fascist culture is killing transgender people.

www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-oxnard15feb15,0,7663055.story"

So a lot of us are getting together, at conferences and such, to see how we can kill it first.

Burkha, burkha.

[DrFelch]

What is the endgame for these anti LGBT crusaders? I try to make the point to them that gays have always existed, and will always exist. If you deprive a segment of the population of the rights and privileges that the rest of the population enjoy, and you are still not happy, what then? Where do they go from there?
It is painfully obvious that, given the chance, they would prefer to totally exterminate all LGBT folks. Of course, that would only "solve" their problem for about five minutes, until the next future LGBT person was born. It is so futile and sad, and the real truth about it is, they are only fighting what they all secretly have buried deep inside themselves, and they hate themselves for it, and torture us all instead of doing the right thing and just killing themselves.

[robertell]

I must admit to longing for the old Republican days, when we were for small government, and personal liberties.

The Repubs got hijacked by the deluded religious folk. MAde a Democrat out of me! Obama's more like Reagan than McCain at this point...so I'll be okay...

But why did the Repubs augur in?

Because of the success of human rights over the past 30 years. Civil rights afforded to blacks, hispanics, gays, women, whatever, all took power away from the white man. ush is the embodiment of that pushback, and yet, as evidenced by his incompetence and lack of depth, he represents the last stand of the stupid white man. He, and those like Ingraham, have simply exposed what bigoted, narrow minded, societies do. They fail.

[JMEB]

I love you, Margaret. But gasbags like Ingraham don't deserve to be empowered by us listening to them. Just ignore them.

[Riverwolf]

Laura Ingraham and her pals are paid to make headlines, stir up controversy. They don't care who they attack nor do they care about the damage it may cause. And I think we're partly to blame--us meaning the LGBT community. Every time they sound off, we react, like clockwork, and they stroke their followers and their ratings go up, and then GLAAD sends out a fundraising letter. If we all stopped watching them and giving them any attention, they'd quickly fade away into the mist.

Nothing they do surprises me, and while I think we have to speak up for ourselves, we can't live our lives constantly on high alert. Unfortunately, we'll ever be rid of all bigots. Think about race--there are still idiots in this country who are racist. Even if we elect Obama as our next president, we'll still have bigots.

Face it, we are outside the mainstream and we always will be. But we cannot legislate acceptance of diversity. We simply must work hard behind the scenes, even when the cameras are off, to make the small steps toward acceptance. The world will always have bigots, but we can create an atmosphere where their message dies the silent death it deserves.

[Nancita]

Yes indeed the world will always have bigots and the Laura Ingram's of the world will be on the air. This means we all must get much better at holding up under the attack and distortion. Seems to me Ingram walked all over Medea Benjamin who probably should have been better prepared for the sneak attack. How can you go on Bill O'Reilly without expecting to be attacked!!! The game is on and it will require a higher level of skill to prevail...as well we should, in the service of advancing humanity.

[robotfog]

I don't see the point of going on Bill O'smelly's show anyway no matter who is hosting it. If it were a show run by human beings and for human beings who simply have a different point of view, then it would be understandable, however, it's just noise. That show has nothing to do with adult conversation.

In my opinion.

[mzmartipants]

I always thought the chances of me loving someone named Margaret were the same odds as Jesus coming back to fish with Marilyn Manson and talk about NASCAR.

Thank you, Margaret!

IMO, Ingram's comments were just something she pulled out of her **S a the last second. The oddness of its placement in the discussion she was having reminds me of Family Guy. Cue Peter's flashbacks to a non-related event!

[robotfog]

I'm tired of those pointless flashbacks.

Notice, how I got off topic? That seems to be a trait with many of us non binary gender variants. [/laugh]

[equalityofconditions]

I really enjoy your blog and am glad to see you really take to the conservative assholes that have poisoned the media. But by the way, culture can be killed and it comes in the form of freedom fries and the emergency Terry Schiavo law.

[gettysburg]

Just keep in mind that to Laura Ingraham and her conservative brethren, if it's different from her, then it's wrong and will have to be changed in order to be "right." There can be no toleration for a difference of belief or lifestyle.

[riversideliberal]

This kind of nonsense makes sense to the right because they conflate Iraq and 9/11, and they also conflate 9/11 and all issues of non-heterosexual, non-baby-producing, or even simply non-boring sexuality.... In their minds, God smote America on 9/11 for having too much recreational sex, and the only way to please God and ward off His mighty wrath in future is to smite Iraq abroad and gay/cool/fun people at home.

They're all insane.

[BardEric]

Funny how all these right-winger republicans are the ones who keep getting caught in all these kinky sex scandals of late.I just cant fathom the hypocrisy of all these religious conservatives supporting the party that brought us Guliani,Haggerty,and cross-dressing federal bankrupcy judges. It's like a bad episode of the Twilght-Zone.

[NursePatric]

If they are serious about winning the war they should be recruiting at the trangender conference!